


Growing Into Responsibility

by KaterineBlack



Series: Growing Through Life [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Disconnect from family, Gen, Keeping Secrets from Family, POV Percy Weasley, Percy Weasley-centric, Percy is a kid in this, Percy is more powerful than we see in canon, Pre-Hogwarts, Precursor to BAMF!Percy Weasley, Some of this could be considered child neglect, The rest of the Weasley family are mentioned but don't speak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-23 15:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19704352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaterineBlack/pseuds/KaterineBlack
Summary: Percy Weasley was the odd child out, he never felt like he fit in with any of his siblings not quite old enough for his eldest two brothers, not one of the twins and too old for the youngest two. His parents rarely had much time for him, his louder siblings finding it easier to keep their attention. So he retreated into books and studying, and slowly, unnoticed he gained control over his magic.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I was looking for fic tagged BAMF!Percy and couldn't find very many, so i started to think about how he would grow up and how that would affect him, while still aiming for his family to be surprised by his abilites by the end of the fic (and as usual my ideas ended up working better as a series than a single fic)  
> So this is the first fic which covers Percy's childhood, these are snapshots of him growing up, mainly as and older child  
> I have the entirety of this first fic is already written and I'm planning on posting a chapter every other day (which will hopefully give me time to write the second and third parts so i can keep to that schedule until I finish the series)
> 
> Thanks go to donnarafiki who Beta'd this and keyflight790 who looked at the summary
> 
> and to the readers of Towards the Light chapter 4 has been written and the start of chapter 5 I am just waiting to have the already published chapters looked over by a beta as well as chapter 4 before I post it  
> as soon as I finish this series (or before if i get distracted again (I'm very sorry) I will go back to working on it

Percival (Percy) Ignatius Weasley was born on a rather hot Saturday near the end of August. His Parents, Mrs Margaret (Molly) Weasley née Prewett and Mr Arcturus (Arthur) Septimus Weasley already had two sons, William (Bill) Arcturus Weasley who was almost six and Charlus (Charlie) Orion Weasley just turned five. They were being watched over by Muriel Prewett who was Molly’s paternal aunt.

By the time Mr and Mrs Weasley had had their seventh and final child, Ginevra (Ginny) Margaret Weasley, notable for being the first girl born to the Weasley family for several generations, Percy was, though part of such a large and extensive family, generally on his own.

Bill and Charlie spent most of their time together either exploring the land and woods which surrounded the little village of Ottery St. Catchpole, which The Burrow, the Weasley family home, was on the edge of, or preparing for Hogwarts, the school they would start at eleven, just over a year away for both boys.

Frederick (Fred or Forge) Gideon Weasley and Georgius (George or Gred) Fabian Weasley were identical, magical, twins, who had been born two years after Percy and they greatly preferred their own company over any of their family and even aged three it was obvious that they were communicating in more ways than their family understood.

Ronald (Ron) Bilius had turned one less than six months before and had up to that point, been utterly spoilt by their parents and was only really interested in food and watching quidditch games acted out by various figures of famous players. 

While all of Percy’s siblings would say they loved him, of those who understood more than crawling around the floor, laughing and crying, they all had another sibling they preferred spending time with over him.

When he wasn’t pressed into helping look after Ron and Ginny or attempting to keep the twins from causing too much chaos, Percy spent most of his time alone in his room or he sat in the family orchid reading.

Mr Weasley tried to spend time with all his children equally but he had to work long days at the ministry as the least respected (and the least well paid) department head. He was in charge of the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, the department was called out whenever there was a report that a muggle had been exposed to magic. The Obliviators were under the department’s purview as well as dealing with instances of accidental magic by muggle-born and muggle raised children. This meant that Arthur was often required to be in the ministry overnight and during evenings and weekends. This left him little time for his family and his older and his noisier children often took all his attention, which lead to Percy feeling like he had been forgotten.

Mrs Weasley was a stay at home mother. Now, most people would assume that this fact would mean that she had plenty of time to spend with all her kids, but that was very much not the case. On top of caring for her youngest two children, she had to keep the enter house tidy, shop for food and necessities for nine people and make sure all her children had three meals a day and that her husband ate and didn't have to worry about what was happening in their home while he was busy at work. Even with magic these tasks took most of her time and energy, and what little focus she had left was taken up by the twins causing mischief. She assumed that her eldest three would be able to look after and entertain themselves and would often overlook them when her younger children were loudly seeking her attention.

Overall Percy spent his childhood feeling forgotten and unloved, he was seen by his family as odd for being so quiet and different than his siblings. This disconnect between Percy and the rest of the Weasley family would follow him through his childhood and his time at Hogwarts and he would only truly feel a part of the family years later, after the whole family had been touched by the violence of war.


	2. Chapter 1

**_Sunday, April 1st 1984_ **

Percy was sat in his bedroom reading through  _ The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 _ along with a copy of Bill’s notes from his charms lessons (Percy was using Bill’s notes rather than Charlie’s as Bill’s notes were coherent and legible as opposed to Charlie’s which were covered in doodles of dragons and Charlie only took notes on bits and pieces that he found interesting). He had crept down to the kitchen early in the morning and made himself enough sandwiches to last the whole day. It was the Twins sixth birthday and they had shown the previous year that they were able to create large amounts of noise and chaos and Percy was hoping to avoid the migraine that he was almost certainly going to get if he spent the day celebrating their birth with the rest of the family. The previous day he had left his gift with his elder brother’s where his parents had hidden them in a drawer in their room, he was sure his parents believed that none of them knew that that was where they put things to keep the children from finding them but he had known about it since he was five. 

Percy was practising the first couple of spells in the book and trying to accomplish them without a wand, he was able to levitate most of the furniture in his room, move it about and carefully lower it again. He had borrowed Bill’s notes on all of the subjects from first year and he was hoping to have finished working on them before his older brothers returned from their second year at Hogwarts. Neither Bill nor Charlie were aware that he had copied their first year notes, he had gone into their room while they were out during the first week they had been back the previous summer and managed to use accidental magic to copy their notes, he had quickly realised that neither set of note would be understandable without the textbooks. This had meant that he was not able to begin working on controlling his magic until the two had left at the beginning of September. Percy had been pleased to realise that one of his older brothers had decided not to bring his first year textbooks back for his second year, while he couldn't overpower the anti-copy charms that were on the textbooks he assumed that as long as he returned the books before the end of the summer he would not be in trouble. 

Suddenly there was a loud crash, and then his mother’s raised voice. From what he heard Percy guessed that Fred had managed to shrink one of Ginny’s toys so much that they couldn’t find it to return it to its normal size and this had upset their baby sister. This was one of those times that Percy wished he could wandlessly cast a silencing ward so he wouldn’t be disturbed every time one or both of the Twins did something that their mother would yell at them over, even when only one of the pair did something their mother would yell at both as she never knew which had done the deed. Percy knew that it upset Fred and George when their parents couldn’t tell them apart. Percy could but as the three of them spent very little time together he wasn’t sure Gred and Forge knew that he could see the subtle differences between them.

He ate a couple of his sandwiches and then pulled  _ Magical Drafts and Potions _ towards him.He couldn’t practice Potions or Herbology the way he could Charms or Transfiguration. He was still able to read the theory and be in a better place to try to apply it in practice either by saving his allowance and buying the materials and equipment needed or, if he had to, by waiting for four and a half years until he got to Hogwarts. If he could be confident that he could grow them without one of his siblings or his parents discovering it, he would grow some of the ingredients of basic potions. Which would mean he could brew them, if he could save up enough for a cauldron and anything he couldn't grow. His older brothers would probably not notice as they were away for most of the year, but his younger siblings were likely to pull up any plants he was interested in and his parents would not approve nor would his parents be happy if they discovered him trying to brew potions in his bedroom.

He heard his mother shouting, probably from the kitchen “Percy, where are you? It’s time for the cake!” 

He closed the textbook, apparently he couldn't avoid his family for the whole day. As he went down the stairs he tried to guess which of the Twins would complain that they had been forgotten, and he wondered whether he would have had to share a cake with Ginny if she had been born less than two weeks later on his birthday, even though there was a five year age difference between them. Considering that their mother had never made two cakes for the George and Fred, even though they were two people, he thought it was likely.Then again Ginny was the baby and the only girl so she would always warrant better treatment in their mother’s eyes.

He walked into the kitchen and saw George standing right in front of their mother and at six years old it was obvious that their mother was starting to lose control of the two birthday boys, together or individually.


	3. Chapter 2

**_Saturday, August 2nd 1986_ **

Percy was sitting on his bed watching Fred and George work on some writing and arithmetic exercises that he had given them to keep them distracted for at least part of the time while their mother took the rest of their siblings to Diagon Alley. The whole family had been meant to go together to celebrate both Bill becoming a Prefect, but their father had been called into the ministry early in the morning. So Percy had offered to keep the Twins busy at home as long as the three of them could be taken to the alley at another time. He had also promised Forge and Gred that he would help them with one prank a week until the promised trip happened as long as they both put effort into the work he gave them.

He had created a series of worksheets which he based on some of the basic principles from the first year textbooks, if they completed the worksheets George and Fred should have a solid understanding of grammar and arithmetic. The problems would give the Twins (and Ron and Ginny if they used them when they were a bit older) a base which would make starting Hogwarts easier. 

Percy was having a last read through of Bill’s textbooks from his fourth year and Charlie’s Care of Magical Creatures book as it was the only class that Charlie took which Bill didn’t. 

“So,” Percy looked up from  _ The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 _ .

“How far…” He saw it had been Fred who spoke first,

“Are you…”

“Ahead…”

“With theory?”

“And…”

“Are you…”

“Only…”

“Studying…”

“The theory?” the Twins finished together. Percy closed the book and then silently cast  _ Wigardium Leviosa _ and moved the book so it was floating between his two younger brothers, he released the spell and the booked landed on the floor with a dull thud. 

The two eight-year-olds looked at each other and then simultaneously said, “Woah!”

“That…” George started,

“Was…”

“So…”

“Cool” 

“I have been copying Bill and Charlie’s notes every summer and Charlie only takes the books for his current year with him to Hogwarts so I have been borrowing them from their room after they return to Hogwarts in September. It takes a lot of practice to be able to consistently cast a spell wandlessly or silently, let alone both, I have been practising since I was six and I can only cast the first year spells without issues.”

“Can you teach us?” his two younger siblings almost shouted and were vibrating where they were sat.

“Those worksheets I made for you are covering the basics to set you up for your first year. Once you have finished them I can start working through the theory for first year with you and I can try and help you to attempt to cast the first few spells without a wand.”

The Twins started to thank him profusely, and then refocused on their work with very little prompting.


	4. Chapter 3

**_Saturday, September 13 1986_ **

In the end it took over a month for Molly and Arthur to keep their promise and take Percy, Fred and George to Diagon Alley. The Twins weren’t even particularly upset that it took so long as with Percy’s help they had set up six pranks and hadn't gotten in trouble for any of them. Percy had helped them trigger the pranks at times when they were around their family or out of the house entirely. While their parents had assumed that Forge and Gred were responsible, with some help from one of their brothers, they only asked Bill and Charlie if they had helped the pair, Percy didn’t seem to cross their minds at all.

The main reason the trio had to wait for so long was that their father was repeatedly called into the ministry over the weekend, the end of the summer always seemed to see an uptick in both accidental magic and muggle baiting. Their father had been home over the last weekend in July, but their mother had insisted on them staying home and spending the weekend with Charlie and Bill before they returned to Hogwarts on the Monday. Gred, Forge and Percy barely saw their older brothers over that weekend as their parents and younger siblings took all of the older two’s attention. The three middle brothers managed to have a rushed goodbye with the two Hogwarts students before they had to rush off to catch the train.

Once they reached Diagon Gred and Forge wanted to look in _ Gambol and Japes _ and Percy wished to see what books were available in the junk shop and the second-hand bookshop. The Twins hadn’t been into either of the shops that Percy was interested in before and they were willing to have a quick look in the joke shop before heading to the junk shop. Once they were inside Percy headed straight to the back of the room, where there were shelves with books on. Their father had a brief look around and was immediately drawn to the few muggle items in the shop. George and Fred walked around the shop and examined some of the items that were on display, while most of it counted as junk by anyone's standards, there were a few items that the Twins thought could be useful or be re-purposed. They had some money saved from their small allowance and doing extra work in the family orchid.Between them they could afford a couple of small items that they thought were particularly interesting.

By the time the group had finished in the junk shop it was getting late and Arthur decided that, as all three siblings had been into one shop they wanted to go to, they would head back to the Burrow.

Once they arrived home their father’s attention was quickly gained by their younger siblings who had apparently realised he had not been at work but who had seemingly not missed that their older brothers who were not yet at Hogwarts had also not been there for the day. They made their way up to Percy’s room and started to examine their purchases. Fred had found an old  _ Sneakoscope  _ which was meant to be faulty, though he had his doubts, and George had found an ear which could be discreetly stuck to a wall and used to listen in on conversations, it had been sold to the Junk shop when the creator couldn’t manage to get it to work and the two inventors wanted to examine the spells and improve on them. Percy had found a book on magical theory which he was hoping would have information on honing skills in wandless and  silent casting, he was planning on giving it to the Twins as a Christmas or birthday present depending on when he finished with it.


	5. Chapter 4

**_Thursday, July 30th 1987_ **

Percy was fairly sure the only reason he was being brought along on the annual trip to Diagon Alley before school started, was because he needed a wand.They didn’t have any familial wands that he could use, so his family had to take him with them to try out the wands in the junk shop to see which worked best for him.They couldn’t afford the price of a new wand from Ollivanders, so they had to hope the best fit they could find at the junk store would work, but there were never very many wands at the shop as few wixen got a new wand if they got them from a true wand shop.

He was to take Charlie’s first-year textbooks apart from defence, which they managed to find in the second-hand bookshop. Defence was the only subject where the textbook changed every year, as Hogwarts could not keep a professor for the class. Since his elder siblings had started at the school, two of the defence teachers had been injured badly enough they could not continue teaching, one had gone mad and started to teach all their classes naked. One had somehow lost the ability to speak in English and translation charms wouldn't work on him or on the students in regard to him. Their third teacher had vanished in the week after their exams and the DMLE investigation was still ongoing. The rumour that had been going around Hogwarts for years, which Percy had heard from Charlie, that the position was cursed and that was why no professor lasted for more than a year as DADA teacher.

Percy had hoped that having to be brought along on the trip would give him a chance to spend some time in the junk shop but his mother quickly hurried them from one shop to the next, spending the least amount of time necessary to find the books and equipment her three children needed for the next year at Hogwarts. The shop they ended up spending the most time in was  _ Quality Quidditch Supplies _ , as Charlie had been awarded the Captaincy of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and their parents wanted to gift him with a broom. He had been using one of the schools brooms before then. They had given Bill an owl the previous year when he was made a prefect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this isn't a very long final chapter but this is where it felt like it should end
> 
> Well this is the end of the first arc of the series, I hope you have enjoyed it  
> I was hoping to have enough of the next part written to keep the same posting schedule... but I got distracted, first by trying to think of names for all of the students in Percy's year (canonically we know 4 including Percy) and then i started messing around with a different CAD software which has eaten the rest of my focus
> 
> Assuming i don't get more distracted the first chapter of the next part will _hopefully_ be posted by the end of the week but please don't hold me to that  
> And for readers of Towards the Light, I promise I am still working on that as well!!  
> KHB


End file.
